Let's move to ...

At the bleary end of another weekend session, Arthur Seaton, Nottingham anti-hero of Alan Sillitoe's Saturday Night And Sunday Morning, tumbles down a pub's staircase and promptly pukes into the laps of a pair of fellow imbibers. He'd had only seven gins and 13 pints, the chuffin' lightweight. That's a quiet night for his successors in what more tawdry rags often call Britain's Binge Drinking Capital! But, he types, before the city's tourism officer can leap to the keyboard, there is another, gentler side to Nottingham.

Ups Like every city centre in the country, this one's festooned with cranes, bringing smooth-talkin', metrosexual living, BritArt and coffee bars to wean bingers off Diamond White: much of it, like the splendid up-and-coming contemporary art gallery, is jolly good. Some really characterful corners. More sports facilities per head than anywhere else in Britain: handy for working off that beer belly.

Downs It didn't get its reputation for nothing. A hosepipe will be useful for swilling down the front step. Gun/gang crime, though mostly beyond the centre. The glut of new apartments may bring price slumps: treat as a long-term investment.

Getting around The new tramline heads north-east through the centre. Train: two hours to London (half-hourly). East Midlands Airport, 25 minutes by car/taxi, 45 by shuttle bus.

Time out The Royal Concert Hall, the Playhouse, the Theatre Royal, good shops, decent local arts scene, the Peak District, the Goose Fair.

Schools Of primaries circling the centre, Welbeck and Huntingdon are "very effective", says Ofsted. Secondaries: the private High School and High School for Girls; or the "excellent" Greenwood Dale state.

Property Lofts and new blocks all over the centre, though Lacemarket is the epicentre. One-beds there from £100,000; studios, £70,000-£90,000; two-bedders, from £135,000 in some developments, £150,000 typically, though up to £230,000; top dollar, a two-bed penthouse in Halifax House, £425,000. Or the canal, where new developments like Waterside Plaza or Park Wharf have three- or four-beds, from £300,000. Watch for the massive new Eastside City - 2,000 more apartments and, in Michael Hopkins, a decent architect: the marketing suite has just opened, though it'll be at least two years before completion. Agents: start with Savills (0115 934 8000).

Bargain of the week A two-bedroom flat in period conversion, around the corner from Market Square, £79,950, with Halifax (0115 941 8751).